OT: 40 years ago today

[8893]

Like millions of others, this is how I found out:



It was the end of the innocence for me.

 

[Marbles90]

Like millions of others, this is how I found out:



It was the end of the innocence for me.

Thanks for sharing. I found out the next morning hearing the song "Girl" playing on my AM radio alarm clock set to WNBC-NY as it woke me up to get ready for school. As the song completed, the news was shared. I will never forget that morning.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Probably found out via Cosell but dont' recall. What I do remember is my high school biology teacher tried starting class and was too broken up to speak. He jumped up on the lab table & talked to us as peers about his life what music meant to him and how it contributed to him teaching biology. Most memorable 45 minutes of high school by a lot.

 

[wheelerdog]

I was in my room at Fairfield U watching the game. I grew up in a house with 3 musician brothers who worshipped the Beatles. It was a body blow for sure. Lots of guys in my dorm didn't get it.

 

[SoFla Steve]

I heard it from Imus in the Morning (back when he was funny) on WNBC.
I was/am a huge Beatles fan. It was a dark day.

 

[Kathy]

I heard it while I was ending my evening shift at the hospital. Devestated.

 

[8893]

Probably found out via Cosell but dont' recall. What I do remember is my high school biology teacher tried starting class and was too broken up to speak. He jumped up on the lab table & talked to us as peers about his life what music meant to him and how it contributed to him teaching biology. Most memorable 45 minutes of high school by a lot.

I was a freshman in high school and had been a Beatles freak for as long as I could remember. I was in bed at the time but not asleep, and I could hear my older brothers and my father watching MNF in the room below me. I heard the commotion over the news and got up to try and figure out what was going on. None of it made sense to me, and I remember going to sleep with the notion that maybe they were wrong about him being dead and that they would be able to revive him somehow by the time I woke up.

That was obviously not the case, and I was consumed by it for months thereafter. My bus stop was around a half mile from my house--crazy that that is unfathomable these days--and I passed a news store on the way. Every day for at least two weeks I bought the NY Post, Newsday and the NY Daily News because I couldn't resist the tabloid fodder about everything to do with it. Pretty sure I still have most of those papers. I still remember one headline: "The Face of the Callous Killer."

I lost my mother at such a young age that I really wasn't even conscious of that loss at the time; and we had experienced the usual losses of other close relatives to illness, and a neighbor to suicide. But this one was different.

A killing.

By a fan!?!

Who was reading The Catcher in the Rye, my favorite book?!?

As I said, none of it made sense, and in many ways it was the end of the innocence for me because I saw the world as a much different--and darker--place. At least sometimes.

Thank God for the music though. Plenty of light in that.

Good call by Gifford.

 

[CL82]

Like millions of others, this is how I found out:



It was the end of the innocence for me.

I love how Cosell didn't want to say but when Gifford said we have to Cosell says okay I'll get in after the next play and then delivers unhesitantly in that staccato delivery of his.

 

[Kitaman]

I love how Cosell didn't want to say but when Gifford said we have to Cosell says okay I'll get in after the next play and then delivers is unhesitantly in that staccato delivery of his.

Delivered just like a doctor giving a patient bad news. Just tell/say it like it is. I respect that.

 

[businesslawyer]

I was in my dorm room at Trinity when they broke into the evening programming to announce it. I immediately called my grandfather, who lived on the south side of West 72d Street. Lennon's building, the Dakota, was directly across the street on the north side of 72nd Street. He was looking out the window at the gathering of police and other first responders. He had heard the shot and knew within minutes it was someone important by the number of first responders on the scene.

 

[Hoophound]

I was in my dorm room at Trinity when they broke into the evening programming to announce it. I immediately called my grandfather, who lived on the south side of West 72d Street. Lennon's building, the Dakota, was directly across the street on the north side of 72nd Street. He was looking out the window at the gathering of police and other first responders. He had heard the shot and knew within minutes it was someone important by the number of first responders on the scene.

Cool story, grim as it is.

 

[wheelerdog]

Yep. Black and white. I think it was Sylvania. And we got great reception and all of the NYC stations.

 

[8893]

Yep. Black and white. I think it was Sylvania. And we got great reception and all of the NYC stations.

I had a tiny black and white in my bedroom at home that I shared with my older brother. We jury-rigged the antenna with metal coat hangers that we strung together so they would reach one of our beds, and one of us would hold it while we watched so we would get better reception. Particularly for Soap, whatever channel that was on. My stepmother was a born-again Christian and the Catholic Transcript had condemned that show so she forbade us from watching it on the house TV.

 

[Deepster]

I've always been a Beatles fan. When my daughter was 5, I had my iPod on shuffle. Maybe 4,000 songs. A Beatles song came on and she goes "Dad, who sings this?" and I told her and she said "I like them. They're good."

It blew me away that there was something that hit a 5 year old's ears that caused her to want to know more about them. She had a little Beatles phase after that and one weekend later that year, we went to see Rain (Beatles tribute on Broadway) and she asked if we could go to the Strawberry Fields spot in Central Park. I then took her to the Dakota and told her the story of what happened. She was probably just 6 at the time. We talked about that today and it still was memorable for her.

Long story less long, they touched people. Still do.

 

[UKemba15]

I’ve been a Beatles fan my whole life. For me, they completely changed what music could be. I hadn’t been born when Lennon was assassinated, but it’s very interesting to hear the stories some of you have about where you were and how it affected you. I’d love to hear any other anecdotes people might have about what the general “mania” felt like, and how their music/breakup/deaths impacted you...if anyone feels like sharing. It’s one thing to listen to or read about that time period, but first hand accounts are so much more evocative.

 

[8893]

I've always been a Beatles fan. When my daughter was 5, I had my iPod on shuffle. Maybe 4,000 songs. A Beatles song came on and she goes "Dad, who sings this?" and I told her and she said "I like them. They're good."

It blew me away that there was something that hit a 5 year old's ears that caused her to want to know more about them. She had a little Beatles phase after that and one weekend later that year, we went to see Rain (Beatles tribute on Broadway) and she asked if we could go to the Strawberry Fields spot in Central Park. I then took her to the Dakota and told her the story of what happened. She was probably just 6 at the time. We talked about that today and it still was memorable for her.

Long story less long, they touched people. Still do.

There has long been a theory that they unlocked the DNA for the "happiness gene" in music. It is absolutely uncanny how durable that catalogue is.

I has worked on me since I was a kid, and it worked on my kids without me even trying. They each can pick out the Beatles (and the Band) anywhere, anytime, and they will instinctively start singing along.

 

[David 76]

John was the guru of the Beatles to so many people. He may not have liked it but he was. People were devastated. Beyond losing a great artist, A voice and a hope for a generation was lost.

 

[TXHuskyFan]

I was in sixth grade, and did not stay up for the end of the game. I remember who told me in school first thing in the morning. I had no older siblings and my parents were not much into music so I was not as devastated as some in the moment, but I still knew it was a big deal. To this day I still wish I could remember which girl that overheard our conversation that morning, and simply asked “who is John Lennon?” That was shocking. Had I been just a year or two older it would have been a lot more devastating as I really came to understand a lot more about music in 7th and 8th grade.

 

[husky8273]

was at Carriage House my senior year watching MNF. Mark Twain House did a live remembrance with Frank Rizzo, Roger Catlin and others tonight.

 

[Chin Diesel]

A bit before my time to have an impact and I was more of Stones/Zeppelin guy than a Beatles guy...... and Harrison was my favorite of the Beatles, but yeah, you could tell it had an impact on plenty of people. I was young enough to not understand being shot at the Dakota and then seeing pictures of NYC. I was expecting Rushmore.

For people my age, I'm guessing Cobain or Princess Di were probably the deaths that shocked the world and made it stand still. MJ was a huge story too but his demise was somewhat predictable.

 

[jleves]

I was a sophomore at Loomis Chaffee and definitely asleep when it happened but someone pulled the fire alarm and we all went outside and the news spread rapidly. Wish I had been the one cool and aware enough to pull the alarm - it's a story you'd tell for the rest of your life.

 

[imno1]

i still listen to the Beatles more than any other artist and can't wait until August when Get Back is released.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

There has long been a theory that they unlocked the DNA for the "happiness gene" in music. It is absolutely uncanny how durable that catalogue is.

I has worked on me since I was a kid, and it worked on my kids without me even trying. They each can pick out the Beatles (and the Band) anywhere, anytime, and they will instinctively start singing along.

It's the one thing I can think of off the top of my head that I play that my 9 year old instinctively likes.

Playing the Beatles to a 20-something these days might not be an earth-shattering experience, but it's always amazing to me how their fingerprints are on so much of the music that followed them. There are so many Beatles songs touching so many different sounds that you would absolutely be forgiven if you thought you were hearing some new indie band rather than something from 50 years ago.